Zehut is a Political Chabad House

Today is the 19th of Kislev, the holiday of Chabad.

For me, Chabad means endless love. A warm heart. Nostalgia. A faded childhood photo of my mother hugging me.

Nobody has yet discovered Chabad’s secret: How to completely preserve your identity while simultaneously projecting to those different than you a feeling of belonging and brotherhood.

Have you ever seen a Chabad Chassid shave off his beard in order to come closer to someone?

Have you ever seen a Chabad Chassid angry?

You can spot a true Chabad Chassid from a mile away. He simply loves you, even from a distance. He knows who he is and loves you for who you are.

Chabad is ultra-Orthodox – but not really.

Chabad is the Land of Israel – but not Zionism.

Chabad is…well, no reason for me to continue with this list. Everybody and his own Chabad.

I feel that my genealogical connection to the first Chassidim of Chabad filters into my public life.

I am not a Chabadnick. But Zehut is like a political Chabad House.

Just as in a Chabad House in Timbuktu the bare-headed trekker can pray next to the bearded, be-hatted ultra-Orthodox Jew and feel completely at home, with his personal liberty unthreatened and intact,

So too, the Zehut party:

Complete national identity

With complete personal liberty.

Not because it is impossible otherwise.

But because that is how it should be in the first place.

Yat Sameach, dear family.

L’chaim!

#Chabad #YatKislev